Car-coupling



,UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES GIFFORD, OF GARDINER, MAINE.

CAR-COUPLING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 236,943, dated January 25, 1881.

Application led November 8, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES GIEEORD, of

l Gardiner, county of Kennebec, State of Maine,

In my invention eachdraw-bar is shown as provided with a link-engaging projection to be caught by the link of an opposed draw-bar, and each draw-bar, ina suitable recess at the rear of its projection,"receives a link provided with suitable guides, which, co-operatin g with the draw-bar, prevent the link from being turned in the direction ofits circumference.

Each draw-bar is provided lwith a link-operating device, which `is so held or mounted thereon that it, when theends of the draw-bar meet or come together, will be operated to positively turn the link of one of the draw-bars forward from its `upright position, it being thrown over and down, so as to catch the linkengaging projection of the opposite draw-bar and couple the cars together.

Figure 1 represents, in side elevation, the front end of a draw-bar with its coupling-link elevated,that being the position it will occupy v when the cars to be coupled"4 are approaching each other, and the draw-bars strike together at their ends. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, showing the forward portions'of two draw-bars of adjacent cars, one coupling-link being shown in position to couple the draw-bars together, the other coupling-link, not then to be brought into use, being shown as hanging down and broken oli` at its lower end, the latter being to save room on the drawings and Fig. 3 is a top view of Fig. 2,' the draw-bar at the right of such gure being omitted.

The draw-bars a b2 aresupposed to `be alike, so I need not herein describe with particularity more than one of them. Each drawbar has a link-engaging projection, b or b', to be engaged by a coupiing-link, c o r c', as in Fig. 2, to couple together the two 'draw-bars and the cars with which they are connected. At the rear of each link-engaging projection there is a recess or seat, d, for the link. Each side of each link has connected with it two vdraw-bar, prevent the link from being moved in the direction of its circumference or in the direction of the arrows, Fig. 3. Each drawbar has a stop, f, which arrests the descent of the link when turned down, as at the right of Fig. 2.

At the top of each draw-bar I have made a groove, g, in which I have placed the shank of the link-operating device, it being composed of a sliding bar, h, provided with a suitable crosshead, 1I, or pusher, against which the link will preferably rest when elevated or turned back, as in Fig. 1, wherein the link is shown in the position it will occupy when it is about to be operated or thrown from a position at the rear of a vertical line forward and down into engagement with the projection b of an opposed draw-bar on another car. This link-operating device h, in order to prevent the link escaping from the recess d, has its front end, 2, prolonged beyond the cross-head t into a recess made in the draw-bar below the projection b or b', as indicated by dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 2, extended forward to near the front ends of the draw-bars. The link-operating device has a lug, 3, which, when the link c is elevated, as in Fig. 1, and the cross-head is drawn back ready to be operated to throw the link forward, stands at the rear of the ears 4, which form parts of the draw-bar.

When the ends of the draw-bars abut or strike together, the draw-bars are each made to recede one or more inches backward under the platform of the car, and in so doing the projection 3, striking against a iixed part of the car or platform-as, for instance, the fixed part designated by the letter l in Fig. l--will IOO cause the link-operating device to travel forward in its groove in the draw-bar as the draw-bar recedes for this short distance, such movement of the link-operating device causing the cross-head t' at the rear of the link c (see Fig. 1) to act quickly against the said link near its lower end or near its bearing in the recess d, instantly throwing the link positively forward and downward toward, and so as to engage, the opposing part b of the draw-bar b2, or throwing the said link from its position, Fig. 1, into the position, Fig. 2, thus coupling the draw-bars and cars together.

I might use one or more guides e to prevent the link moving in the direction of the arrows, Fig. 3, or, as I have called it, circuinferen tially.

I claim- 1. 1n a car-coupling, the link c, loosely held in a recess in the draw-head, and provided with the projections e, to prevent lateral or circumferential movement and longitudinal displacement of the link, substantially as described.

2. In a car-coupling, the draw-bar provided with a link-engaging projection, and with a recess to receive one end of the link and permit it to be turned from one to the other side of a vertical line at right angles to the drawbar, and a link provided with lateral guides and mounted in said recess, combined with a reciprocating link-operating device having a, cross-head to act upon the said link, near its lower end, and throw it positively upward, forward, and down over the link-engaging projection of an opposed draw-bar, substantially as described.

3. In a carcoupling, a draw-bar provided with a recess, d, to receive one end ot the link, and the link c, provided with guides e, and mounted in the said recess, combined with the link-operating device provided with a crosshead to throw the link forward, and with a forward projection, 2, to bridge over the said recess and retain the end of the link therein, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHAS. GIFFORD.

Witnesses Jos. P. LIVERMORE, G. W. GREGORY. 

